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Crab Cakes RecipeDelicate and Delicious

My son-in-law's recipe – I love that kid! He knows his way around the kitchen, and this recipe is a winner.

We control the cost by adding scallops and shrimp to the pricey crabmeat.

This is a stand-alone crab cake, which we usually serve with just lemon slices and a side of hot sauce, but go ahead and add your favorite tarter or cocktail sauce if you like.

Portions/Servings

This recipe will feed 50 people, if you are you are serving other snacks, and/or appetizers, dinners, etc. Read about Party Food Quantities and how to plan for the right amounts.

Crab Cakes Recipe Shopping List for 50 People:

___2 – 16oz cans of fresh/frozen crabmeat – from the seafood section, NOT from the canned seafood aisle. If the stuff that’s next to the canned tuna fish is all you can get, maybe you should pick another appetizer…

___1 – pound of very small salad shrimp, cooked and shelled

___1 – pound of small bay scallops, cooked or raw

___8 – eggs

___12 – scallion (green onions)

___1/4 cup good mustard

___1/4 cup Worcestershire Sauce

___16 – lemons, some for the garnish

___3-4 Cups of seasoned bread crumbs

___Old Bay Seasoning

___2 – Bunches of fresh curly parsley, some for the garnish

___2 – heads of leafy lettuce for the garnish

___1 – bottle of Frank’s hot sauce, serve along side

Procedure:

One Day Before the Party:

TIP: For the mixing part of this recipe, don’t use an electric mixer. Stir this together carefully and slowly by hand.

In a bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients, crack open the eggs, stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, 2tbsp. of the Old Bay Seasoning and juice of three lemons. Combine well and set aside.

Chop the 12 scallion onions into thin rings. Also finely chop one of the two bunches of curly parsley. Stir these into the bowl with the eggs.

Chop the salads shrimp and the bay scallops into small pieces.

Add them and the crab to the bowl. Mix this all together.

Here is the mix without the bread crumbs - see how it's shiney? Compare it to the next pic:

After adding bread crumbs, the mix looses it sheen, but still has a bit of moisture - enough to allow you to form it into balls.

Into the bowl, blend in three cups of the season bread crumbs. Mix this all together and test the crab cakes for consistency. Do this by picking up some of the mixture in your clean hand, squeezing it into a small ball to see if it will hold itself together. And more bread crumbs if needed. If you’re mixed becomes too dry, beat up another egg and slowly blend it in.

Got the consistency right? Looks good!

Setup and few cookie sheets or HalfPans covered with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with vegetable release.

Use small scooper, a spoon or your clean hands to form balls that are about 1in. around. Careful to make them all the same size so they’ll cook within the same time.

Lay them out close together but not touching each other on the aluminum foiled pans. Before covering them with film, spread out the film and spray the film with vegetable release, then cover the crab cakes. This way the film won’t stick.Cool trick.

Refrigerate overnight.

On the Day of the Party:

Cooking the Crab Cakes:

Should I Bake or Should I Fry?

If you Bake:

Baking is much easier than frying. You’ll form the crab cakes, lay them out on a HalfPan, put them in the oven and take them out when they’re done. No muss, no fuss. Baking is also healthier, as we all know. If you’re pressed for time, or if your health-conscious guests would appreciate it, maybe baking is the way to go.

If you Fry:

So yeah, frying tastes better than baking. But it will take some time and planning to do the frying. If you’re serving alcohol, it’s good to have some fried foods, which naturally slow down the absorption of alcohol.

Got a mixed crowd of guests? Fry some and bake some.

Bake the Crab Cakes:

Preheat the oven to 375°.

Remove the crab cakes from the refrigerator, peel off the film and allow them to warm up for about 15-20 minutes before baking.

Bake the crab cakes for 10 minutes at 375°, using a chef's thermometer to check if they are done, 165° internal.

Serve immediately, or keep them warm in a chafing dish. Just make sure not to dry them out.

Fry the Crab Cakes:

Keep the crab cakes cold. You’ll be dropping them into the hot oil – so be careful - no splashes! Use a pan/pot that will have enough oil to fry, but not more than half full with oil. Always use metal tongs to handle the crab cakes. Don’t splash the crab cake into the oil, instead hold the crab cake with tongs just above the oil surface and let it gently fall. Use a glove or potholder, never a towel.

You’ll be deep-frying with hot oil at 350^F. You will need a fairly large container of oil, or plan on making several batches in a smaller unit.

TIP: If you are going to be doing a lot of frying in your home, you might want to buy a small deep-fryer. Often inexpensive, these cookers automatically go to the proper temperature and usually do a great job. We use a “fry-daddy”.

As needed for your guests, carefully drop the cold crab cakes into the hot oil for 2 minutes. Pull one out and use a chef’s thermometer to check if they’re done, 165° internal. Cook longer if needed. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

For larger parties that are being served over a longer period of time, the crab cakes can be transferred to a chafing dish and kept warm. This method will work better if you have baked the crab cakes, not fried them.

Want some sauces? Here’s two from our Seafood Cocktail offers chilled shrimp, scallops, whitefish, lobster and whatever else you like - with great sauces.

Red Cocktail Sauce: 5 parts ketchup to 1 part horseradish – more or less if you like, but that works for us. So, 32 ounces (large bottle) of Ketchup gets 5+/- ounces (half bottle) of Horseradish. Mix that together, and adding one small, very, very finely chopped yellow onion, and, the juice of ½ lemon.

Splash in one ounce of liquid heavy whipping cream, and a small shake of salt. Mix well and taste. You like? Add more horseradish if you want hotter, or more ketchup to cool it down.

TIP: People often add hot sauce, but we don’t. We suggest that you have a bottle handy – people will ask for it if they just can’t enjoy seafood without a serious hot hit...(like somebody we know, right Phil?)

Refrigerate the sauce.

Tarter Sauce:

Combine the 32 oz of sour cream with a cup of relish and a Tablespoon of white vinegar, one teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of pepper.

TIP: You can use mayonnaise for this sauce too – or half mayo and half sour cream.

Refrigerate.

Leftovers:

If you have any leftover crab cake mixture that wasn’t cooked, go ahead and cook it now, either fried or baked. They will freeze and stay good for a while, packed tightly in zip-lock bags with all the air squeezed out.
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